The present invention relates to a contact lens cleaning instrument.
A contact lens (hereinafter referred to as "lens") has been hitherto manually and carefully cleaned by means of a puff (like a powder puff) or the like which soaks in a cleaning medium.
Further, there has been known a device having elastomeric pads to be in contact with both surfaces of the contact lens and to be vibrated mechanically so that the contact lens is cleaned (Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication 125820/1988).
However, in case of cleaning by means of the puff, it is not easy to handle a lens, since the lens is small. Moreover, with manual cleaning, not only can the lens be easily damaged due to mistaken handling, but it takes much time to clean whole surfaces of the lens.
Further, when cleaning by means of the above-mentioned mechanical vibration, the lens and the pads are provided with regular relative motion. Therefore, uneveness of cleaning happens, and in some cases, there are some parts of the lens which are not cleaned well, and another parts of the lens which are not cleaned so well that sometimes a part is not cleaned.
The object of the present invention is to delete the above-mentioned disadvantages and to provide a cleaning instrument which can easily clean a lens in a short time without damaging the lens and further, which can clean both side surfaces of the lens at the same time. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning instrument which serves also as a case for storing the lenses.